In this episode, Jared dives into the concept of product-market fit and how musicians can apply it to book more high-end gigs. He shares valuable insights on adapting your musical offerings to meet the demands of hot markets like weddings, corporate events, and private parties. Jared uses examples from the industry to explain why focusing on the market's needs—rather than just your product—is the key to more bookings and success.

"We can't force a market to change; we have to change to fit within that market. Otherwise, the market’s just not going to respond, and you won't get the gigs you want."

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- Breaking Into High-end Gigs Masterclass: How I Went From Broke Musician to Thriving By Breaking Into These Largely Unknown High-Paying Gigs

What's up, renegade musicians? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast, where we do things differently than the majority of the music industry. And as a result, I believe we have more success, more fun, and more financial freedom.

All right, I wanted to chat briefly about a concept that I was thinking about, because I was chatting with a musician this morning who had a very unique tribute act, but they also did covers.

And I thought, I was thinking, you know, I actually brought up phrase that I want to be kind of the thesis of today's episode, which is product market fit.

And so the idea behind product market fit, this is like a marketing and startup entrepreneurial term that represents, once you have been able to figure out how to make the product that you create fit very well with a niche market, a group of people, a segment of the overall economy that is interested and desperately desires to have that product.

Examples of this would be like, if you remember before Uber, you know, think about how would you get from a to b if you didn't have a car? You know, for example, you would take a bus, you would take a train, a plane, whatever. And then the biggest thing that Uber was competing against was taxis.

You know, the big old yellow cabs that you think about for a big city that you'd have to hit down by holding your arm out and hoping that there was one driving by, and then you would pay.

Now, Uber is a fantastic example of product market fit because, you know, they realized, you know, that the taxi, the way that taxi industry works sucks. It's so old fashioned. There's so many weird, like, old archaic ways that it works.

For example, in order to be a taxi driver in New York City, you have to have a taxi medallion, which the city gives those out. And you have to pay sometimes upwards of like a million dollars to get a taxi medallion. So the barrier to entry was very high.

Plus, you know, the taxi ride experience was not very fun for most people. Nobody likes to step out into the street of a busy, you know, street with cars going by either way and hold their hand out. And also, you have no idea if one's going to be driving up the street.

Plus, when you get into that taxi, maybe the driver is grumpy and the seat might be dirty and it smells weird. And overall, it was not a great experience. So there was a hungry market of people who needed casual transportation, you know, short term transportation to get from their.

The airport to their hotel or to get from the bar home without drunk driving. And so there was a gigantic market, because all these people wanted an experience that was better and different than a taxi. So Uber realized that there was this hot, hungry market just waiting for something to break onto the scene.

And no, they weren't the first to do this, but they were the first to really get it right. And so they created a product catered to that market, knowing we are going after the casual traveler who wants a better experience than a taxi? More convenient. And they literally designed their product so that it was more convenient than a taxi.

Just open up your phone, open up an app and hit a button, and your ride arrives within 510 minutes.

Also, they knew that they could make it a better experience than taxi by using a rating system for the drivers so that, you know, if you had a really good experience, the car was comfy, clean, whatever, the driver was friendly, you could leave them a five star review.

And if it was as bad as a taxi was, you could leave them a one star review. And then, you know, Uber tends to give you higher rated people because they're incentivized to keep you using the Uber platform.

So they're going to send you a better driver than the ones who get crappy one star reviews. And so because they understood their market and what their market wanted, and then they created a product specifically designed to meet the needs of those millions of people who had that.

That desire. It was an instant success. It scaled up.

And, you know, Uber's a giant company. Of course, Lyft is also a giant company because they're also, you know, tapping into that market.

So how does this apply to us as musicians? The thing about us as musicians is that we tend to create a product first without thinking about the market that it serves.

And as a result, we're on this constant struggle to find product market fit. However, most musicians do not care about their market. They just care about the product.

And that's okay because, like, that's kind of how we develop as musicians, is that we like what we like, and we tend to play what we love.

You know, I was chatting with a blues musician who really loves playing blues, which is awesome, but the struggle then becomes to find the market that really loves the blues, too, to fit into that market.

So kind of the whole, like, idea behind what I teach for music marketing and everything is identify a hot market who can pay top dollar for what you have to provide.

And that's why I really emphasize the high end gigs like corporate events, weddings, nonprofit galas, and private parties.

So find that hot market and then figure out how to fit into that market. So, for example, in the wedding industry, if you go after wedding industry people, wedding gigs, that is a very clearly identifiable hot market.

It's probably the biggest market in terms of how many weddings there are versus corporate events, versus nonprofit events, versus private parties. Weddings happen quite often and everywhere. And so that's a hot market which people are willing to spend tons of money on.

But weddings are not necessarily going to hire an m and M tribute artist. They're not going to hire a Ozzy Osbourne tribute act. And so if you wanted to fit into the market of wedding music, then you might have to adapt what you do in order to better fit into it, right?

And you probably want to do some research, see what songs, what artists do people have played at their wedding.

You know the most. If you think about DJ's, I've had this discussion before on this podcast. DJ's are kind of the biggest competitors to live music in the high end events market.

And it's because multiple reasons. But DJ's have kind of nailed product market fit. They literally just play what people want to hear.

Some DJ's have an ego that prevents them from doing this. But the majority of DJ's, they know that people want to hear top forties, danceable songs and that's what they play because, you know, they're willing to do that. But we as musicians are not necessarily as flexible as DJ's.

And as a result, it's harder for us to find product market fit because we can't force a market to change. We have to change to fit within that market. Otherwise, you know, the market's just not going to respond.

You're not going to get the gigs that you want. You're going to be frustrated. Why isn't this working? Well, it's probably because the market wants something different than what you offer.

And that's okay. That's not to say what you have to offer is bad, it just means it's not appropriate for that specific market. So then the choices become change to fit into that market or choose a different market.

And it's kind of, I don't know, it's, I guess in this realm, it does become an ego thing. Like, are you willing to adapt to your market or are you willing to recognize that your musical product is not a good fit for that market and then change your desire?

Because if you, what Einstein said it once, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and getting expecting a different result. So that's kind of the idea behind product market fit.

And I think it's important for us to understand as musicians because we can't fit a square peg into a round hole. A round peg in a square hole. Whatever the saying is, we kind of have to understand these markets are certain shaped holes.

And the musicians who have the most success in these markets will be the same shape as the hole that that market has. And so I was kind of talking to this musician. I used an interesting analogy because, you know, I always talk about the bell curve.

Where does your music fall on the bell curve? And I think the bell curve represents what the market wants. You know, in the wedding industry, the top of the bell curve in the center is kind of that top forties.

Or if you're a ceremony musician, they want like romantic, somewhat top 40 e ballads, like Christina Perry's A Thousand Years is super popular in the wedding market still.

Yes. Even after all these years since Twilight was released. And so that is one way that I found product market fit is by playing a thousand years and having video of me playing that on my website, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etcetera.

Sorry, I just lost my train of thought. Where was I going with this? Okay. Product market fit, wedding industry.

Oh, yeah. So I labeled myself as kind of vanilla music with cinnamon flavors. And so it's kind of vanilla with cinnamon, because vanilla, meaning I am not necessarily, like, on either side of the bell curve.

I kind of fit in the middle by playing these covers that, that people want to know. But I do believe you have to have some sort of cinnamon, some. Some sparkle to what you do, the parts of you that make you unique.

And so an electric violin is in and of itself, cinnamon. It's. It's spicy compared to just a standard violin.

Although I will also say, you know, if you listen to my last episode, I was thanking Bridgerton for. For making string music very popular. String music playing covers like violins playing Beyonce is kind of spicy nowadays.

It's popular. It's, you know, it's trending. So that's where the vanilla with cinnamon is.

And so I suggest the wedding and the corporate and the nonprofit and the private party markets tend to be a bit more vanilla in their musical tastes.

And that, I'm not saying that that's bad, I'm just kinda of saying that's, that's how it is. And if we want to fit into those markets, then we will play music that might be considered a little bit more on the vanilla side.

All right. I am arriving at my networking gig, so I've got to hop off so I can load in. But thanks for tuning in.

I want to hear your thoughts on this. If you have any thoughts on it at all, just let me know. Shoot me your opinions and my email is Jared@BookLive.com

And by the way, if you want a free 30 day trial of BookLive where you can find these high end gig opportunities, then go to BookLive.com, put in your email address and you'll get a free 30 day trial of it so that you can find some high end opportunities, reach out to them, and then organize your music and gigging.

Alright, that's all I got for you guys today. Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!".

​Bye everybody.